even president george w. bush, the man who got us into two wars we didn't pay for. the president who exploded our deficit. he insisted the solution to our problems were more tax cuts. president clinton handed him a $236 billion surplus. a surplus. and left office with a $1.2 trillion deficit. but he just had to keep those tax cuts coming, but something remarkable may be happening in our politics. we're on the verge of something big. after decades of silliness, this lock-step republican fantasy that has hurt our country, president obama is close to breaking the gop tax unity. >> unfortunately, the speaker's proposal right now is still out of balance. you know, he talks, for example, about $800 billion worth of revenues but he says he's going to do that by lowering rates. and when you look at the math, it doesn't work. if we're going to protect middle class families, then we're going to have to have higher rates for the wealthiest americans, folks like me. >> read his lips, no deal without a tax increase on the richest in this country. and get this, president obama is